Rocking out with Rock Band: 2/19 & 2/26 DLC Review

This Week's DLC

Oh … My … God …

I have some incredible respect for Chris Vrenna, Richard Patrick, Dave Grohl, and Josh Freese (and especially those last two). Anyone who has played drums with Nine Inch Nails or in a really good Nine Inch Nails cover band (are there actually any of those?) understands that these guys don't play around. This week was intense.

Both The Collector and March of the Pigs are in crazy insane ridiculous time signatures. Regardless of the fact that they are lower difficulty than The Perfect Drug (which deserves it's Nightmare difficulty), they are tough. If you are a drummer who isn't very used to at least 7/8 time or a gamer who tries to find short/easy patterns to fall into you will have a tough time. There are parts of these songs where almost everything seems random and the only way you can really tell that it is still a song is if you can step back and listen to the whole thing.

In a very odd twist, the guitar is employed to play some of the keyboard/piano heavy parts. I had seen some questions at other forums asking how this would be handled and it seems we have our answer: Harmonix expects you to be ok with the fact that you are playing a fake MIDI guitar rather than a fake real guitar. Which I suppose is just nitpicking, but my air guitar is always a Fender Strat and I'm certainly not playing a piano on it.

Seriously though, it might be a little odd, but playing the keyboard parts on the guitar works fine and is better than more dead air. It's kind of a cool twist actually. But now on to the songs:

Nine Inch Nails :: The Collector (Moderate Songs)

Difficulty: This is on the very hard edge of a Moderate Song. After you get the pattern it isn't so bad, so hopefully this will help a bit. The verses are in 13/8, but it's easier for me to count them as an alternating 6/8 and 7/8 pattern. The hitch is that just when you get used to the verse, the chorus flips it to just 7/8. But the chorus is actually easier to count if you look at it as alternating 8/8 and 6/8. Timing is tough on the guitar as well, but finding the pattern is the real key to this one.

Experience: There isn't any guitar at the beginning of this song, so if the drummer doesn't pick it up fast it's hard to keep from failing out. This is a bit boring for the guitarist as well, but they make it up to you at the end by letting the guitarist play a bit of piano. This was a pretty fun song, and if you want a good introduction to strange time signatures on a song that isn't impossible, this is a good one to go with.

Nine Inch Nails :: March of the Pigs (Blistering Songs)

Difficulty: Wow. If you thought the time signature was crazy in The Collector, prepare to have your mind blown. This song is in 29/8 (verses) and 4/4 (chorus). Take that in for a second. To make it easier to count, verses can be counted as three phrases of 7/8 followed by one phrase of 4/4. I made the mistake of not listening to this one first and I kept getting lost every time the "extra" beat came around (since I didn't count it first), and getting back on track was tough some times. This song has lots of notes, and they come at you in very strange timing. Again, this one is tough because the guitar comes in way after the drums. Bass enters in between drums and guitar, but it can still be tough to save each other if needed because of the timing here.

Experience: This one is quite fun, but it can be a little frustrating before really nailing the timing. It was nice to get little breaks of 4/4 time in between the insanity of the verses, and the anticipation set up by the calm chorus for the next verse is actually even cooler when playing Rock Band than when listening to the song.

Nine Inch Nails :: The Perfect Drug (Nightmare Songs)

Difficulty: Ridiculous. This song is in 4/4 and I couldn't for the life of me get by it on Expert. Anand got tired of me trying and I actually had to bump it down to medium to finally pass. This one is like playing chicken with a drum machine on acid. No, I don't really know what that means, but that's what its like anyway. The beginning isn't that bad, on either guitar or drums. The middle of this song is some of the most insane stuff I've ever seen in Rock Band. Not because it's fast or because it's in a strange time signature, but because of how all over the place and staccato some of it is. It does settle down at the end, but if you've made it that far, not getting up to jump for joy will be tricky in and of itself.

Experience: The beginning of the song is very fun and straight forward for drums, bass and guitar. After that it was fun, but very technical. If you like a challenge, then this one has a lot to offer. This one is also the longest song of the day, which is a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. This one is really very fun unless you get frustrated easily.

Summing it up: Buy the Pack or Just a Track?

All in all, this is a great pack to grab. Our thoughts are that these are more fun to play as a group than solo, and the frenetic pace of The Perfect Drug to the crazy time signatures of the other two will really be fun with some friends. If you can only pick one and you don't mind a challenge, I'd recommend The Perfect Drug. Other wise, the other two are great picks and you really can't go wrong. For what is is worth, we recommend going with the whole pack on this one.